Discovering foods Off the Eaten Path

By Andrea Honaker / Staff Writer

Published: Wednesday, July 24, 2013 at 08:13 AM.

Parchment paper

½ cup maple syrup

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Stir together ½ cup sugar, all-purpose flour and next 3 ingredients in a large bowl. Cut lard into flour mixture with pastry blender or fork until crumbly. Add cheese and bacon and toss to combine. Whisk together milk and eggs in a medium bowl; add to the flour mixture, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened and a dough forms.

Behind every great restaurant is a great story, and that’s certainly the case for those treasured eateries located off the beaten path.

Southern Living’s new cookbook, “Off the Eaten Path: Second Helpings” by Morgan Murphy, provides an insider’s look at some hidden gems across the South. It’s a follow-up to 2011’s best-selling “Off the Eaten Path.”

The book is part travel guide and part cookbook, with 150 recipes from 16 states, interesting tidbits and stories to go with each featured restaurant, colorful state expressions, music play lists and even hotel suggestions. You’ll find color photos to go with every dish as well as pictures that show the eateries’ charm and uniqueness.

“Every recipe has a story,” said Murphy, a travel writer and food critic and former Southern Living travel editor. “I tell all of the stories of these restaurants. The goal is to make sure people get a good story with their meal.”

The recipes run the gamut and include soups, stews, salads, hamburgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, biscuits, cornbread, muffins, seafood dishes, pizza, desserts, alcoholic beverages, milkshakes and more. They were all tried out in Southern Living’s test kitchens to ensure they can be tackled by the average home cook, Murphy said.

“If you can read, you can make the dishes in this book,” Murphy said.

And the places in the book are just as varied as the recipes: from coffee houses, cafes, diners and bakeries to raw bars, barbecue stands and vineyards. The spots are as authentic as they come and are perfect representations of their geography, Murphy said.

Murphy drove 12,000 miles over a span of two and a half months doing research for the book. He used suggestions that people sent him on Twitter as well as tips from people he encountered during his journey to determine which businesses he would visit.

Murphy said that a fun dining experience is all about the conversations you have and the people you meet.

“A great restaurant is built on three legs,” he said. “Food is the most important leg. Then there’s ambiance and service. You’ll eat at a place where any one of those can be broken. The ideal is to have all three, and a lot of these places (in the book) hit all three. I think it’s because they’re family owned. They’re real people.”

One such person featured in the book is Carrie Hudson, who is pictured holding her famous banana pudding. Hudson has been making this dish at Niki’s West in Birmingham, Ala., for more than 50 years, and Murphy had his work cut out for him when he stopped by to get the recipe.

Murphy said none of the other employees knew how to make the banana pudding, and even after Hudson made it in front of him, he was still clueless. He videotaped her making it a second time but still couldn’t get a good grasp on it. Finally, Murphy had Hudson stop after each step so he could weigh the ingredients, and he was able to “crack the code.”

“The whole book is full of little things like that,” he said. “I haven’t been to culinary school, but I doubt they can teach you the things the cooks in this book shared with me.”

A couple of tricks of the trade Murphy learned in his travels were to never put a shrimp into the fryer tail first and to always chill your pizza dough before moving on to the next step.

Miss Hudson’s Banana Pudding

From Niki’s West in Birmingham, Ala.

It’s considered a vegetable at Niki’s West, God bless ’em.

1 ¾ cups sugar

¾ cup all-purpose flour

2 ¾ cups milk

4 egg yolks

2 Tbs. vanilla extract

1 (11-oz.) box Nilla Wafers

3 ripe bananas, cut into ¼-inch-thick slices (3 cups)

4 egg whites

¼ cup sugar

1/8 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Whisk together sugar and flour in a medium-size heavy saucepan. Gradually whisk in milk until blended. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, 5 minutes or until thickened.

1. Brown one-third of pork in 1 tsp. hot bacon drippings in a large skillet over high heat, stirring 5 minutes or until browned on allsides. Remove pork from skillet using a slotted spoon; reserve drippings in skillet. Repeat procedure twice with 2 tsp. bacon drippings and remaining pork.

2. Sauté onion, chipotle powder and garlic in 1 tsp. hot bacon drippings in a large stockpot over medium-high heat 2 to 3 minutes or until fragrant. Add pork, broth, green chiles and tomatoes. Bring to a boil; reduce heat andsimmer, uncovered, 30 minutes. Stir in potatoes and simmer, uncovered, 30 minutes or until meat is very tender.

3. Heat remaining bacon drippings in a skillet over medium heat. Whisk flour into drippings and cook over medium-low heat, whisking constantly, until mixture is the color of peanut butter, about 10 minutes.

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Stir together ½ cup sugar, all-purpose flour and next 3 ingredients in a large bowl. Cut lard into flour mixture with pastry blender or fork until crumbly. Add cheese and bacon and toss to combine. Whisk together milk and eggs in a medium bowl; add to the flour mixture, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened and a dough forms.